The following transcripts are from federal Violation of Supervised Release (VOSR) hearings that Luke Wenke attended on June 21st and June 23rd of 2023. Each document contains a word-for-word account of what was said during the hearing, offering valuable insight into the dynamics between the parties involved in Wenke’s case.
Luke Wenke was ultimately found guilty of violating his supervised release by indirectly contacting his cyberstalking victim (despite being banned from doing so as a condition of his probation). During Wenke’s sentencing hearing on August 10th (not detailed in the transcripts below), Assistant U.S. Attorney David Rudroff urged the judge to send Wenke back to prison for a year.
The judge sentenced Wenke to time served and extended his remaining probation period to 34 months. The court also imposed stricter probation conditions, which Wenke would later be accused of violating on at least five separate occasions.
Luke Wenke: A Self-Described 31-Year-Old Incel
In May of 2023, roughly six weeks after his release from federal prison, Luke Wenke was accused of violating federal probation by emailing his cyberstalking victim’s business partner. Wenke had just finished serving time for cyberstalking the original victim, a Minnesota criminal defence attorney (referred to in court documents and on this website as “Victim 1”), and was serving a three-year probation sentence when he sent the email.
Wenke began harassing Victim 1 in 2020 after he developed an obsession with one of the victim’s legal clients (typically referred to as “Ryan” or “Benjamin”). In the email, he accused Victim 1 and the email’s recipient, A.B., of keeping him and Ryan apart while repeatedly referring to himself as a “31 year old incel.” (In reality, Ryan wanted nothing to do with Wenke.)
Sent from an encrypted email service, the email also blamed Victim 1 and A.B. for Luke Wenke’s felony conviction and the authorities’ continued involvement in his life. In addition to demanding that his felony conviction get wiped from his record, Wenke stated that he had never needed a defence lawyer until his federal arrest and that he would never need one again. He also stated that Victim 1 had gotten him arrested “for the first and last time.”
(Spoiler Alert: He was wrong.)
Luke Wenke to Victims:
“George Floyd is dead and that’s a good thing.”
Much like some of Luke Wenke’s social media posts and other communications that have surfaced online, the email contains racist slang and numerous derogatory statements targeting nonwhite people, including African-Americans (specifically, George Floyd) and people of Middle Eastern descent. Wenke then went on to accuse Victim 1 and A.B. of being homophobic “Nazi lawyers,” although there’s no reason to believe that either of those terms apply.
The melodramatic hysterics continued with Luke Wenke repeatedly blaming Victim 1 and A.B. for making him cry, adding, “I don’t deserve this.” Wenke went on to say, “Luke went down for a dude who never gave him dick” (referring to Ryan) and “thanks for ruining my American Experience.”
Toward the end of the email, Wenke made an implied threat to escalate his behaviour, stating, “This is never ending drama and I am going to carry it on and on and on until things are solved to my liking.”
USA v. Luke Wenke – Transcript
June 21st, 2023
CASE #1:22-cr-00035, DOCKET ENTRY #61
Much of the first hearing was spent arguing about whether Luke Wenke’s recent email to his cyberstalking victim’s business partner, A.B., constituted a violation of Wenke’s supervised release. As a condition of his probation, Wenke was banned from contacting Victim 1 in any form, including via indirect means (i.e. third parties).
Citing previous emails from Wenke’s original case, Assistant U.S. Attorney David Rudroff argued that Luke Wenke knew of the close friendship and business relationship between Victim 1 and A.B., and that Wenke had sent the email to A.B. knowing that he was likely to pass it on to Victim 1.
Luke Wenke’s public defender at the time, Alexander Anzalone, denied that his client had any way of knowing that Victim 1 and A.B. were as close as they were, and that there was therefore no basis to argue that Wenke contacted A.B. with the intention of indirectly contacting Victim 1. Anzalone challenged the testimony of FBI Special Agent Krystie Brown, who admitted on the stand that there was no proof that Wenke had sent the email (even though it contained all the hallmarks of a classic Luke Wenke letter, including similar verbiage and a fixation on past topics that Wenke was known to obsess over).
The defence also urged the judge to release Luke Wenke from the Chautauqua County Jail pending the outcome of the case, but the judge denied the request, citing public safety concerns.
USA v. Luke Wenke – VOSR Hearing Transcript – 06/21/2023USA v. Luke Wenke – Transcript
June 23rd, 2023
CASE #1:22-cr-00035, DOCKET ENTRY #62
During this short hearing, Judge John L. Sinatra, Jr. announced his decision that Luke Wenke’s email to A.B. constituted indirect contact to Victim 1 and therefore violated the conditions of Wenke’s supervised release. Judge Sinatra explained that the burden of proof for a VOSR proceeding is lighter than that of a standard criminal court case and that he had found Wenke guilty by a preponderance of the evidence.
USA v. Luke Wenke – VOSR Hearing Transcript – 06/23/2023Categories: Court documents: transcripts; obsessions: letter writing obsession; stalkers, threats: escalation
Tags: Buffalo, NY; Chautauqua County Jail, conditions of supervision, contact ban violations, cyberstalking, Assistant U.S. Attorney David Rudroff, email, FBI, George Floyd, indirect contact, Minneapolis, Minnesota, out-of-state victims, probation violations, racism, supervised release, third party contact, unwanted contact, Victim 1, victim-blaming